I have a few thousand pounds of Lead. All different alloys but none of it is wheel weights. I am working on starting to heat treat. The key to heat treating according to many sources including our favorite the lasc is arsenic is the required element for heat treating to work. Also need antimony but that is not an issue.
Obviosly adding wheel weights to lead alloy without As is not the answer as it would drastically reduce the As content and make the lead harder to heat treat. The amount of antimony and arsenic are directly responsible for heat treat hardening. Most alloy mixers are recommending .25% for heat treating which is the typical amount in WW. The issue is mixing 1:3 ww to other lead alloys would result in 1/4 the arsenic content. So I am looking at ways to normalize the arsenic content. It looks like you can buy arsenic lead with concentrations of 8%-30% but it is impossible to find.
Does anyone add arsenic to their alloy without using WW? I am interested in hearing what you are using and where you get it. The problem with WW is they only have a trace so I cant dilute the alloy as much as I would like. I do not plan to buy 2000 more pounds of WW to mix with my 2000 pounds of non. Arsenic itself melts at over 1500 degF so obviously that is not a good idea to mess with.
Thanks in advance